Duxton raisin stakes in dried fruit
ONE of the newest players in Australia’s dried fruits industry has started its first harvest at a newly developed vineyard in southwestern NSW.
It forms part of an ambitious plan developed by Duxton Dried Fruits to spearhead a revival of the country’s dried fruits industry.
The harvest at the 400ha Euston vineyard comes more than three years after Adelaide-based agribusiness investor Duxton Asset Management established its dried fruits business to fill a gap left by the exodus of local producers.
Together with more than 100ha of dried grape vines at Wemen, 110km south of Millucrative
dura, in northwest Victoria, the Euston development sets Duxton on the path to becoming one of the biggest dried fruit growers in the country.
Duxton portfolio manager James Shopov said many smaller growers had left the industry over the past 30 years, converting their land to more
crops such as wine grapes and tree nuts. However, with local demand rising, he believes that has left a significant opportunity for a large-scale corporate to enter the market.
“We (Australia) were producing anywhere upwards of 80,000 to 90,000 tonnes a year – at the moment, in the last decade, that’s down to about 10,000 to 20,000,” he said.
“Supply has petered off massively in the domestic space but we’ve actually seen an increase in demand as people start to realise the health benefits (of dried fruits). Australia produces about 60 per cent of its annual demand requirements, so processors have to go out and buy fruit from Turkey or South Africa or somewhere else.”